Dauphin Island wants system of sand dunes to fight oil spill

The Town of Dauphin Island wants to build a system of sand dunes as a fortress for the battered barrier island -- and the marshes lying behind it -- against oily, storm-driven waves from the Gulf of Mexico, officials said Tuesday.

Dauphin Island leaders last week sent a detailed plan to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for building a series of dunes on the southern shore, which has been eaten away by erosion in some areas.

Scott Douglass, a coastal engineer who performs contract work for the town, said the $60 million project would create added protection against oily water, especially during tropical storms or hurricanes.

The quest for the island now is to get BP -- the oil giant that owns the gushing well in the Gulf -- to pay for it.

In the past 15 years, Douglass said, Dauphin Island has been damaged by 16 tropical storms or hurricanes, beginning with Hurricane Opal in 1995, which flattened the west end.

Odds are, he said, the island will likely be affected by a storm during this season, as a giant oil slick floats in the Gulf.

"Mother Nature has barrier islands for a reason," Douglass said. "That's what's keeping oil out of the estuaries."

Mayor Jeff Collier said he discussed the dune project with President Barack Obama during his visit to Alabama's Gulf Coast earlier this month.

Collier said he gave a copy of the proposal to Obama as they rode a ferry from Dauphin Island's east end to Fort Morgan across the bay.

"We may be dealing with this next hurricane season," Collier said of the oil spill. "Hopefully, that won't be the case. We're looking at this potentially as a long-term threat, so what we're doing is looking at a more long-term defense mechanism."

According to the proposal, 4 million cubic yards would be dredged from the Gulf and hauled to the island.

In two areas on the east end near Fort Gaines and the bird sanctuary, sand would be used to refurbish existing dunes, according to the plan.

On the mostly residential west end, a new dune system would be built along four miles with additional beachfront to protect the new dunes, Douglass said.

The west end dune system would, when first constructed, reach up to 15 feet above sea level and up to 54 feet wide at the top, Douglass said.

Collier said the town needs to get a permit from the Corps of Engineers before going to BP to ask for funding.

In Louisiana, BP has agreed to pay $360 million for a project to build six sand barriers meant to protect that state's coastal wetlands.

In recent years, Dauphin Island leaders, in seeking help to fight erosion, have argued that the barrier island is key to the fragile ecosystem along Alabama's coast and the Mississippi Sound.

A separate plan to repair a mile-wide breach in the west end of the island has been approved, Collier said, and construction should begin soon.

The breach is known as Katrina Cut, named for the 2005 hurricane that sliced open the island in the undeveloped part of the west end.